The case is exactly the same with "The Kingdom of Heaven." It is strong only as a united Kingdom. And the last prayer of our Lord before His Passion shows how well the King knew beforehand wherein the weakness of His Kingdom would consist, which would hinder it from comprehending the whole world according to His loving design. The essential unity of the Kingdom was secured, as we have seen above. But still the strength of His Kingdom, as a united Kingdom, would depend upon the loyal obedience of His subjects. And He knew that His subjects would be as much exposed to the evil influence of false teachers, as the subjects of an earthly king are to the seductions of the misguided and seditious. And He prayed "That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be One in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me" (S. John xvii. 21). An unhappy tendency to division was soon manifested in the Church. And S. Paul wrote to "the Church of God which is at Corinth," to rebuke them for imagining that the founders of the Church were founding communities in their own names, forgetting that they were the mere ministers of the King. "While one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man" (1 Cor. i. 12; iii. 1-5). The tendency to form divisions in the Church which so early appeared, increased rather than diminished as years went on; though it was checked, under the Providence of God, by the frequent persecutions which broke out against the Christians. The inevitable result followed. "The Kingdom of Heaven" was weak, and unable to maintain the conflict against the heathenism of the world around it, as it ought to have done. Christendom was divided against itself. The National Churches, which had been founded as Branches of one and the same Church, were engaged in contests between themselves. Then one Church usurped an authority over other Churches, provoking in course of time further disunion. And in our own days, after eighteen centuries have passed since the Church was founded, it is calculated that not one-third of the inhabitants of the earth profess the faith of Christ. So greatly have the unhappy divisions which prevail amongst Christians weakened the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But as Englishmen we are chiefly interested in the Church of our own country. Consequently, we must now come to the consideration of a question which, probably, has already troubled the minds of many readers of these pages--If the Church is one, what is the position of those who have separated from their own National Branch of this one Church, or Kingdom of Christ?